Public awareness of clustering of health events such as cancer, birth defects and chronic diseases has increased markedly in recent years. As a result health agencies have been undertaking an increasing number of cluster investigations. In 1989 a "National Conference on Clustering of Health Events" was held to present new information and to develop guidelines for conducting cluster investigations. These Guidelines recommend a 4-stage approach: initial response, assessment, major feasibility study and etiologic investigation. Data describing the perceived cluster are gathered during the initial response stage. In the assessment stage these data are analyzed to determine whether an excess actually exists, and if so, whether the excess can be linked to a plausible exposure. The results of this assessment are then used to determine whether a feasibility study and etiologic investigation are indicated. The assessment stage is thus a critical step in identifying clusters and determining whether a cluster merits further investigation. Unfortunately the computer resources needed to support the assessment stage are not well developed and basic methodological issues have yet to be resolved. A conference is needed to facilitate an exchange of information targeted at resolving these issues. The objective of this project is to hold the domestic scientific meeting "Conference on Statistics and Computing in Disease Clustering". Rewards are expected to include: * Rapid Communication of recent methodological advances. * Improved ways of incorporating geographic information systems and geographic statistics into disease cluster investigations. * Guidelines on the selection of clustering methods based on considerations such as statistical power and lessons learned from application studies. * Increased knowledge of computer resources and data bases that support cluster investigations.